


That Which Could Never Be

by Navnit



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Wayhaught - Freeform, WynHaught - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:01:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29129940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Navnit/pseuds/Navnit
Summary: Wynonna and Nicole are Bulshars dream victims but instead of being stuck in time loops, they're stuck thinking that they are in love and engaged. When Waverly enters their dream to set them straight, there's hope for an escape but what if Wynonna's feelings weren't all Bulshars doing. And what if it's not so easy to shut them back off once they wake back up.
Relationships: Waverly Earp & Wynonna Earp, Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught, Wynonna Earp & Doc Holliday, Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught, Wynonna Earp/Nicole Haught
Comments: 11
Kudos: 56





	1. The Dream

Wynonna opened her eyes to find herself on one knee in front of Haught looking up at the ginger goddess who had tears in her gorgeous eyes while she tried to contain her delighted gasp with her free hand. She looked around and recognized their location. They were at Nicole's former desk where they had their first heart to heart and their first shared drink. They were alone, but dressed to the nines as if out on a date, Wynonna in a tight floor length dress that was currently being rumples in her position half on the floor and Nicole was in a smart tight fitting suit and jacket ensemble with her long hair tied back in a neat braid down her back. She didn't remember the moments before. Only being in the barn when and Nicole coming to fetch wine for her and Waverly's dinner and then Bulshar was there, blowing some sort of dust in there faces. Next thing she knew, here she was proposing to her best friend, not that she'd ever told Haught that fact. But somehow it felt right, she had never had any problems with her sexuality and she would be lying if she said she didn't find Officer McHaughty attractive, but she had always been off limits. Waverly had staked her claim early and Wynonna had sacrificed more for Waverly than the small crush she had had on the redhead.

Now though, kneeling here memories of her sister were getting difficult to conjure up. Hell even Bulshar was far from her mind as she waited for Nicole to answer the question she must have asked. And an answer she did receive, which had her leaping up and grabbing Nicole in a huge hug, spinning the taller girl around in delight then settling her down and sweeping up her delighted grin with a kiss that put all her previous kisses with others to shame. The taste of Nicole Haught was the single most amazing thing she had experienced. There was no battle for dominance in their kiss that Wynonna was used to. But there was an intensity in their embrace, a promise for forever and a security that she had never felt before, with anyone.

As they broke apart she was graced with the most gorgeous smile as she spoke. "This is the happiest day of my life," she admitted in a quiet whisper against Wynonna's lips. "Thank you for make my dreams come true."

Wynonna pulled back to look at her in amazement. "I should be the one thanking you Nicole," she replied earnestly. "When I came back to Purgatory and found out that the curse was real and not something in my head like the doctors had said, I didn't really expect to survive," she shrugged as she avoided eye contact with her goddess. "There was no one here waiting for me, Dolls was a dick and Doc was, well Doc…" she smiled bitterly as the memories flooded back. "Mama had long ago taken Waverly and fled the country leaving me to deal with the fucking curse," some tears leaked out of the corner of her eyes that Nicole gently brushed away. "And thought, what better way to go down than fighting these fucking revenants till my dying breath, in a blaze of glory and all that. I thought if nothing else it would give the towns people something to talk about; the town fuck up taking out Bobo Del Rey and his ilk Kamakaze style." She shook her head at the crazy thoughts that had circled her head when she had come home and found that everyone had cut and run.

"But then I met you," she continued with a smile shining through her tears. "Nicole Delilah Haught…"

"Not my middle name but continue," she replied with a smile through her own tears. To which Wynonna just smirked at her.

"But you gave me hope and you loved me without asking for more. You let me fuck up with Doc and Dolls but then you went with me to confront one of my biggest mistakes of drunk sleeping with a revenant but you held no judgment in your eyes. You were the shoulder that was always there for me, even when I fucked up again and again. But you gave me the biggest gift of them all that they when I got the courage to ask you out and you said yes…"

"Well I said that it took you long enough, Earp but semantics…"

Wynonna nodded her agreement. "Yeah, it did take me too long but Nicole I needed to make those mistakes with them so that I wouldn't fuck up with you, because the gift that you gave me that day was the most precious thing you could have given me; What you gave me that day," she said reaching out to wipe away the smudged lipstick at the corner of her fiancés mouth, "Was hope for the future, it was something to fight for, something to live for and that has made me the person that you see here today. The person who finally ended the curse and the woman who now is no longer afraid of the future but excited for it."

Nicole smiled and wiped away her tears and closed their distance. "You seem to be under the delusion that this exchange is one sided. "Might I remind you, future Mrs Haught that I'm also who I am today because of you?" she grinned as she nudged her forehead with Wynonna's and watched as their breaths mingled as their lips remained inches apart.

"I wouldn't be Sheriff if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had the closure I have had with my parents that I have today if you hadn't pushed me to confront them. I wouldn't have helped saved the world if it wasn't for you and lets not forget that I wouldn't be Golden Girls Trivia Champion if you hadn't come to bat for me that day at Shorty's." She finished with a laugh that Wynonna echoed.

"I'll take three fights with Bulshar over that torturous marathon any day of the week," she said with a grin as she finally closed their distance and swallowed whatever would have been Nicole's response. They stood there kissing for a while before pulling apart again and Nicole had to immediately frown at the mischievous look on Wynonna's face that look had been responsible for a lot of fun and a lot of trouble for them in the past.

"You know, I heard that the Sheriff won't be in tonight," she said with a cheeky smile that slowly got mirrored on her fiancés face. "Wanna break in Nedley's couch like we did so long ago?"

Nicole didn't answer but pulled on Wynonna's hand to drag her over to her office and only let her go to close the blinds. Before they knew it shirts were being unbuttoned and skirts were being hiked up and it was not long before they lost themselves in each other.

* * *

Two Weeks Later in the Dream

In shortys basement there was a soft glow that grew into a large ball before coalescing into a portal that spat out a diminutive blonde in a fur coat and knee high boots she shuffled up to her feet and checked herself for injuries. Once she determined that everything was inorder she collected herself and marched up the stairs. It was time to get the love of her life to wake back up.

* * *

Waverly jumped out of the pickup and waved back at the driver as he reversed out of the driveway and drove off kicking up snow in his wake. She turned back to the house and took deep breath. "Thank god Uber still works in this dream," she mutters to herself and trudges through the snow and up to the house smiling as she heard commotion and beaming as her sister opened the door and stepped out into the porch. She couldn't help but take a moment to study Wynonna and wondered at how free she looked, she was dressed comfortably in a sweater and jeans, her feet encased in fluffy slippers and a ready smile was present on her lips that she rarely saw, exactly what made Wynonna smile like that?

Said smile dropped a little as Wynonna got a glimpse of their visitor and Waverly was surprised that she wasn't immediately engulfed in her arms. It seemed to take a while for her sister to recognize her but even as she walked on closer and waved and she saw the dawning of realisation hit her it was not delight or relief that she saw expressed in her eyes. Indeed Wynonna seemed almost wary of her and yes the smile was completely wiped off.

Finally coming to a stop at the stoop of the homestead Waverly offered another wave with a smile and gave a cheery greeting of. "Hey Wynonna, ready to get out of here?"

But Wynonna didn't immediately jump to follow. Indeed she actually took a few steps back. "Waverly?" she asked as if dreading her answer.

"Well who else would I be, silly?" she asked with a little laugh hoping that Wynonna could invite her inside soon, she was freezing out here.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with none of the fondness that Wynonna usually held for her.

"I'm here to bring you guys back, of course," she explained hoping that Wynonna would catch on quickly.

"Back?" she asked in surprise. "Back where? Is Mama with you?" she asked looking behind her and up the drive.

"Mama?" Waverly inquired with her own surprise. "Mama left, didn't she? Don't you remember?"

"Left," she asked dispassionately. "She leave you too, did she?"

Waverly huffed, why was her sister being so dense, didn't she remember? "Yes, mama left us both, Wynonna," she said with not a little exasperation. "After Christmas remember?" finally getting fed up of freezing her ass off she spoke up. "Listen Wynonna, can we have this riveting conversation inside? Only I'm literally freezing out here."

At that Wynonna seemed to realize her predicament and stepped aside to let her in.

"Thanks so much," she started to say before she stopped at the doorstep. This wasn't the house that she remembered, sure the walls, rooms and stairs remained the same but there was new paint on the walls, the furniture had received an upgrade, there was an actual TV in the house and the mantelpiece seemed to have more photos on it than usual. A peek in the kitchen showed more appliances, a modern oven and microwave. This house seemed to have undergone an extreme makeover by someone who was definitely not Wynonna, it looked nice, homely and it kind of made her ache for Nicole which was confusing.

"So," spoke up Wynonna from behind her. "I would have sent you an invite if I knew where you were," she said a little guiltily.

Waverly frowned. "Invite," she asked in confusion. "Invite for what?"

Wynonna frowned back. "Isn't that why you're here? For the wedding? I'm assuming you saw the pictures we posted online."

Wedding? "What Wedding?" she asked hastily. Was Wynonna marrying someone in this reality? Was it Doc? Maybe that why she was so confused, Bulshar must have planted this fantasy in Wynonna's mind. "Wynonna you have to understand, this is not real."

"What's not real?" came a familiar voice that she had been dying to hear for so long. Turning she saw a sight for sore eyes in Nicole Haught in her most relaxed best but what came out of her mouth froze her in her spot. "Babe, who's this?" she asked but the endearment wasn't aimed at her and neither was the question.

As she turned to who Nicole seemed addressing Wynonna seemed to light up and trot up the stairs to meet her girlfriend halfway and clasping her hand brought her down to the landing. Waverly's breath hitched in her throat as she saw Wynonna lean up to give her girlfriend the most unreserved kiss she had ever seen her sister give to someone else, say good morning to her softly and turn back to her with that damned smile back on her face. Finally she saw the reason for that smile, and it was the reason the same smile was missing from her own face these past few days.

And the biggest gut punch of the day was still to come as Wynonna turned back to her with a beaming Nicole next to her and smiled. "Nicole, this is my little sister Waverly," she said freely swinging their entwined arms together as they stepped closer. "Waves, I'm sure you already know but just to make it official, this is Nicole Haught, my fiancé.

* * *


	2. The Truth

Waverly was truly going to go insane. Here she was at the eleventh hour with Bulshar having magically drugged Wynonna and Nicole and stuck her girlfriend and her sister in a dream world where she was estranged from Wynonna and she and Nicole were lovers. And nothing she had done in the last week and a half seemed to be able to snap Wynonna or Nicole out of the fantasy that had been created for them.

And it didn't help that this Wynonna, was the sweetest most gentlest Wynonna she had ever known, truly she loved her sister, prickly disposition and all but she couldn't deny that she did love this version of Wynonna who, she assumed in the face of Nicole's love, had grown sweeter and shared so much more of herself, wasn't at least fifty percent drunk a hundred percent of the time, worked as the local PI since getting rid of the curse and thriving in the sleuthing lifestyle that kept her investigative skills in check. Truthfully, if the sacrifice wasn't her sweet ginger honey than she would probably trade this Wynonna for her current one no problem.

Hell with all the private convincing that she had been trying with Nicole, not to mention that disastrous attempt at a kiss that would hopefully wake Nicole up, she was half convinced that she was the one deluded and not them. And now here she was, sat down in the barn, on her phone, which worked surprisingly well considering she was in a fantasy, trying to not remember the sweet giggles and slight moans that had filtered down the stairs of the homestead as her girlfriend and her sister got it on. She was really surprised by how quiet they were, considering that neither her or Nicole were quiet lovers usually, but she guessed it made sense considering the few rare times that Doc had stayed at the homestead till morning Waverly hadn't ever heard a peep from their room.

As she tried to get the image of Wynonna and Nicole out of her head she pulled up Animal Crossing on her phone and decided to flirt with her virtual girlfriend while her current girlfriend was preoccupied.

* * *

Wynonna and Nicole finally separated with content gasps of completion, their sweaty sated bodies still intertwined yet they were now resting their heads on their own pillows as opposed to being a mess of hair and limbs in the center of the bed. She smiled out over at her fiance and reached out to clear some of her matted hair from her forehead so that she could see those beautiful brown eyes. The smile she received as usual took her breath away but the words out of her mouth gave her pause.

"Alice," she said breathlessly.

Wynonna frowned. "Bit weird gasping my daughters name after I've given you the best orgasm of your life but okay, I'll bite," she responded, her usual snark missing in her tone. "What about her?" She, as usual ignored the stab of pain that she sadly had gotten used to feeling whenever her daughter was brought up in conversation.

Nicole sighed and turned over on her back, pulling her leg out from between Wynonna's, she ignored the brunette's whine of protest and Wynonna tried to ignore the swell of the red heads chest as she took another deep breath in. "Listen Wynonna," she said not looking at her bedmate. "I know it's not my place, but since the curse is over, I know how much it would mean to you if we had Alice here with us," Wynonna's eyes widened in surprise as Nicole chanced a glance at her then averted her gaze again. "So I was thinking that maybe, before the wedding plans start in earnest we can go and get her?" Another chanced glance another averted gaze and Wynonna's eyes filled.

She leaned up on her elbows and reached over to tilt Nicole's face to hers and laid a gentle kiss on her upturned lips. As she pulled back, she laid her forehead to her fiances and nuzzled their noses together. "I love that you use words like 'earnest' its cute and sexy all at once," she swallowed Nicole's laugh in another kiss before pulling back again. "And I absolutely love that you're thinking of Alice in all of this, but I don't want you to feel obligated to love her like I do just because you're agreeing to marry me."

"I don't feel obligated, I just do," she replied softly as the evening light slowly dwindled outside. "I have loved her ever since you put her in my arms and told me to send her away," she admitted and Wynonna felt her tears fall at the genuine love and affection that colored her lovers voice as she spoke of her daughter. "There's not been a day that goes by that I don't think what having her here with us would be like."

Slowly laying back on her pillow Wynonna combed through Nicole's glorious red hair as she spoke. "As far as I'm concerned, aside from the paperwork, she's as much yours as mine, so I don't know where you get the notion of it not being your place to talk or ask about her. If you don't remember it was you who I asked to arrange things with Gus and Perry for Alice's escape, and it was you who I trusted to safely deliver her to them," she said as she gently stroked her fingers down Nicole's face as tears fell down her partners cheeks. "As far as I'm concerned, you have more right than anybody to bring up Alice or help decide her future."

Nicole caught her hand as it wiped her tears and placed a small, grateful kiss on the palm of her hand in thanks for her trust.

"And I think, that if we have a road trip to plan before the wedding, we should get up and pack soon," she said as an aside and waited for the light to go off in Nicole's head, which didn't take long since she was the smartest person that Wynonna knew. The smile she got back was breathtaking as her ginger goddess jumped on her and pinned her down for a ravishing kiss of joy and elation. As their tongues battled for dominance Wynonns flipped them over and pulled back enough to say, "The packing can wait," before pouncing on her wife to be, eager to show her how much she really appreciated her presence in her life.

* * *

Waverly felt the pang deep in her chest when Nicole and Wynonna eventually came down for dinner all happy and lovey dovey, hands clasped together, loving smiles on their faces as they whispered secret messages to each other that made them take turns blushing at the other with knowing smirks or indulgent smiles on their faces. The strange or should she say fortunate thing about the spell they were under was that anything she tried to subtly make either Nicole or Wynonna see the truth, was almost obtusely ignored by whoever she was trying to convince and by the next time they spoke, they seem to have completely forgotten the conversation she had tried to initiate. It was frustrating but it also prevented incidences where she went a little bit too far; like kissing her girlfriend to convince her of her reality, to have adverse effects. She was sure if this situation happened in real life and she was the estranged sister of Wynonna Earp come to visit for her wedding and actually kissed her betrothed? Well she was sure there would be consequences, instead of Nicole and Wynonna acting like nothing had happened.

As they were finishing their dinner Nicole dropped a bomb on her. "Oh, Waverly, you'll have the run of the homestead for the next few days, a delivery of the decorations for the wedding will be arriving, I was hoping you could be a sweetheart and receive them for me?" she asked as sweetly as her Nicole would, Waverly shook her head mentally chastising herself for thinking that this was some sort of alternate universe Nicole, no this was her Nicole and she was sure that her Nicole would be mortified to know that she had cheated on Waverly with her sister, spell or no spell. "She realised belatedly that she had left Nicole, her Nicole, hanging for an answer.

"Oh," she replied inelegantly. "Of course I can," she agreed readily, wanting to please but then thought about the request for a minute further. "Wait where will you be?" she asked hoping for a blase answer about taking a vacation or something but what came next was not at all what she expected.

Nicole looked at Wynonna hesitantly as if protecting a secret between them. Then her sister huffed before sitting back down. "A while ago I got pregnant, and it was the best thing that I did aside from running after my Haughtie. We had to send her away for her safety but with the curse now gone Nicole said she wanted Alice to attend the wedding and then be a part of our family. So were leaving tomorrow to head to Gus's and get our daughter back home."

As Wynonna dropped that bomb and left with Nicole to close up the house for the night she sat there and came to a decision. She knew that Bulshar didn't put her sister in this dream world to play house, no he had more sinister motives and she was sure that this trip about fetching Alice had something to do with it. She knew from Bulshar's previous actions with Dolls and the failed deal with Doc that he preferred to torture and manipulate Wynonna mentally instead of directly killing her, so this dream was probably meant to break her. As Wynonna and Nicole started to climb up the stairs Waverly got up.

"Wynonna!" she asked with as much of her loving sister voice as she could muster. They both stopped and turned to look at her. "Can I talk to you? Its about something personal? About mom?" she knew that while Wynonna wasn't very self conscious about most things, Nicole was more considerate and would politely excuse herself wherever she knew she didn't belong.

Nicole looked back at Wynonna and smiled softly. "I'll get started on the packing," she said giving her a sweet kiss. "You and Waverly, take your time." And the redhead trudged up the stairs while Wynonna skipped back down the few flights she had climbed and walked over to her.

"By the fire?" she asked jovially to which Waverly just nodded and followed her sister after taking in a fortifying breath.

As they settled down next to the fire, Waverly launched into it. Starting from the beginning, about the attack on the homestead, Wynonna being in the loony bin, her leaving Purgatory and coming back on her twenty-seventh birthday. She spoke of her involvement in Wynonna's fights with the revenants, about how much they loved each other and finally she spoke of Nicole, about how they had met, how they had fallen in love and how much Nicole loved her. She showed her pictures of them on her phone, them kissing around a disgusted Wynonna, going on romantic dates, sharing lunches. And with every step of her story she watched Wynonna shut down. And when she started talking about Nicole the tears started flowing. By the time she ended her story with how Bulshar had cast a spell on them both the anger started. And then Wynonna stopped, just for a moment after her story ended, she paused, wiped her tears and the familiar steel returned to her sisters eyes but there was an underlying agony in her gaze that Waverly couldn't place.

"How do we stop this?" she finally asked and Waverly pounced knowing her window was very tight before the spell started to make her forget again.

"There's always a back door to these spells, a place or a room or something that doesn't feel right, doesn't belong," she replied eagerly. "I read that the back door is always significant to the target but has been made to forget about its existence."

She watched Wynonna wrack her brain for a moment before snapping her fingers. "Barn!" she muttered. "You keep talking about a barn in your stories, the barn where the iron witch died, the barn where Willa caught you and N-Nicole, the barn which Mama burned down to kill the demon attached to you. I've never had a barn at the homestead."

Waverly frowned. "Wait what?" she asked in surprise. "What do you mean you don't have a barn, I was just in the barn hours earlier," she said pointing at said building that was visible out of the kitchen window.

"That's the road Waverly," she said dismissively as she glanced out the window before she did a double take at the window then at Waverly who was also putting two and two together.

"The barn is the back door!" both sisters said in unison and jumped up from their seats as Wynonna pulled out Peacemaker from god knows where and walked over to the front door. "Looking back at Waverly she steeled herself before nodding. "Ask Nicole to come down here and keep her company," she said softly. "I'll deal with Bulshar."

* * *

And as Wynonna crouched down next to her two loves in the whole world, both buried in the ground in front of the homestead with gravestones marking Nicole and Waverly, Bulshar stood in front of her and yet so far out of reach. She was so tired of it all, her heart was aching and so was her body, she had just killed and had been killed by Bobo Del Rey over and over in some sick dance that probably amused the snake to no end. And she just didn't have the strength to go on.

"You know what you have to do to end this," he said for the millionth time only this time she nodded because this time she nodded and pulled out Peacemaker to hand it to the demons head.

As he reached forwards she pulled it back, standing up with some effort to try to act like she stood a chance against this monster. "One condition," she replied firmly.

Bulshar laughed. "You are hardly in a position to bargain, Miss Earp but never mind, I will entertain your condition."

She turned her head and saw through the kitchen window, Waverly and Nicole sat next to one another, Nicole laughing at something Waverly said. She turned back.

"Haught, remembers none of this. You make sure that when she wakes up from this fucking nightmare, that she is Waverly's Nicole, not mine, deal."

Bulshar's smile faded as he too looked into the window himself. "Why just the girl? Why not make yourself forget as well?"

It was Wynonna's turn to grin. "Because Bulshart you might be taking from me the one thing that I have defined myself from for the last few years and you might be leaving me the most broken of anyone else who had ever attempted to break me, but you also gave me a gift and while it was not real, it is something that is going to fuel me from now on. So take Peacemaker Bulshar, and run, because this isn't going to be the heir coming after you this time. This isn't going to be an Earp coming after you as well. No this is going to be the woman that you gave hope to and that hope burns brighter than any fire that revenge or anger or hate can light.

Bulshar smirked and pulled Peacemaker out of Wynonna's hand. "Such pretty words, spoken from such a place of pain, but in the end they are still just words. Goodbye Wynonna Earp… And wake up!"

**Author's Note:**

> Being a serious Wayhaught shipper I couldn't really fathom shipping anyone else but the ladies over at the Top Shelf Shenanigans podcast kind of got to me. Tell me what you think?


End file.
